Major events in the last 100 years

The Sacco and Vanzetti Case

On April 15, 1920, a guard named Alessandro Berardelli and paymaster Frederick A. Parmenter were robbed and killed by gunmen. The two, who were employees of Slater and Morrill, a South Braintree, Massachusetts, shoe factory, were holding two containers of payroll (around $15,773.59).

Sep 21, 1920

Women Gain Rights

Females advanced in the work force as more women began to get hired for office jobs. They also gained several rights and a freer lifestyle. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed in the United States, granting suffrage to women.

Jul 27, 1921

The Miss American Pageant

In 1921, the first Miss America Pageant took place with a total of eight contestants in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The winner, a 16-year old girl from Washington, D.C., was Margaret Gorman.

Dec 5, 1924

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol often referred to simply as prohibition. It means the legal act of prohibiting the manufacture from selling the alcohol and transporting it to people. The term can also apply to the periods in historic of countries during which the prohibition of alcohol was enforced.

May 20, 1927

The Spirit of St. Louis

On May 20, 1927, twenty-five-year old airmail pilot Charles Augustus Lindbergh flew solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris. On May 20, 1927, at 7:52 a.m. and landed in Paris, France 33 1/2 hours later Lindbergh landed. His plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, a 220 horsepower monoplane, was named for the Missouri investors who had sponsored his flight.

Jan 22, 1930

The empire state building

The empire state building has 102 floors in it and it took 7,000,000 man hours to build it. Theirs 6,500 windows in the whole thing, that’s a lot of windows to clean. I would hope I got paid a lot to clean those windows. It took 57,000 tons of steel to make the skeleton of the building. There was 17 million feet of wiring throughout the building.

Sep 4, 1930

The Great Depression

It's almost perverse in a sense, but the more than 47 million people who look forward to their monthly Social Security checks owe it all to the greatest economic depression in U.S. history. Things turned ugly after the stock market crashed Oct. 29, 1929. The Great Depression of the 1930s ensued. Billions of dollars were lost as banks and businesses went belly up.

Mar 1, 1933

Prohibition

Prohibition was a period of nearly fourteen years of U.S. history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor was made illegal. It led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.

Jun 16, 1933

The New Deal

The New Deal was a series of economic programs brought to America in the 1930’s. That is, Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. It was also made to make more jobs.

Apr 14, 1935

The dust bowl

The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds. By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit. Dust storms are really destructive to homes and anything that was in its pat

Jan 30, 1940

The Holocaust

The Nazi’s genocide of millions of other groups of people. Adolf Hitler was the leader of this group and they killed Jews, homo-sexuals, and many others that were not like them. It did not matter if they were German or not. The total victims amounted between 11-17 million.

Dec 7, 1941

Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941 353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes that came I two waves and attacked an American base. 2,402 Americans were killed and 1282 were wounded. This marked the start of WWII.

Jun 8, 1943

Women working in factories

This is a term that represents the women working in factories during WWII. They took the place of men since they were at the war. This term is commonly used as a symbol of feminism.

Apr 16, 1945

Jackie Robinson

The first African-American to play professional baseball. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He broke the color barrier and allowed African-Americans to play in the MLB. He wanted to quit but his wife made him stay to give these rights to the other African-Americans.

May 8, 1945

VE day

A celebration of the defeat of the Nazi war machine. Otherwise known as the end of WWII.

Nov 1, 1955

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War stretched from November 1st, 1955-April 30th, 1975. As seen by the dates this was part of the Cold War era. The fight was basically between North Vietnam who was supported by the Vietnamese government and the South Vietnam who was supported by the United States. It was overall an anti-communist vs. communist battle.

Apr 12, 1961

First Man in Space

Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, made history on April 12, 1961 when he became the first person in the world to enter space. He also became the first man to orbit the earth. They named his shuttle the Vostok 1. He made approximately a ten minute orbital flight. America matched the accomplishment less than a month later.

Aug 11, 1962

LA Riots

The riots took place in a neighborhood called Watts, Los Angeles. It was a civil disturbance lasting from August 11th to August 15th. The death count was 34 for the incident with 1,032 injuries. The result of the riot was $40 million dollars. It goes down in history as the largest and costliest rebellion of the Civil Rights Era.

Jul 2, 1964

Civil Rights Act

The Civil Rights act became effective July 2nd, 1964. The legislation outlawed discrimination against African Americans and women including racial segregation. It ended racial segregation in public places and schools. It allowed women to vote in the United States. The bill changed American history forever.

Jan 15, 1967

First Super Bowl

On January 15, 1967 Super Bowl I took place. It took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers came out on top, winning 35 to 10. An American tradition was born on this day in history. The name came from Lamar Hunt seeing his daughters Super Ball and decided to call the major game to Super Bowl. It didn’t stick until a couple years later.

May 24, 1977

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine.Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers.

Mar 28, 1979

Three Mile Island

The Three Mile Island accident was a partical nuclear meltdown which at the Three Mile Island power plant in Dauphin County, Pennsylannia, United State on March 28, 1979. This was the worstaccident that the U.S government had ever seen.

Apr 19, 1980

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. The illness interferes with the immune system, making people with AIDS much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not affect people with working immune systems.

May 13, 1981

Pope John Paul II assassination attempt

The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 times.

Mar 8, 1983

Deoxyribonucleic acid

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid containing the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms. The DNA segments carrying this genetic information are called genes. Likewise, other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.

Jan 20, 1993

Bill Clinton

The 42nd president of the US. Bill served eight years in office (1993-2001). He was almost impeached twice as president for cheating on his wife. Most people say he was a bad president because of this but life was good when he was president.

Apr 19, 1995

Oklahoma Bombing

April 19th, 1995 a terrorist bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast claimed 168 lives and killed 19 people under the age of six. This remained the biggest terrorist attack against America until 9/11.

Apr 20, 1999

columbine

Eric Harris had been plotting this massacre since 1996. He created a website for gaming with his friends and then they started to blog on the site. In late 1997 Harris really became a threat when he rambled about his rage against society. Two years later, when he was a senior, Harris and his friend Dylan Klebold ran into the school with guns. They killed 12 students and 1 teacher.

Dec 31, 1999

Y2K

Y2k was a major problem with digital and non-digital documentation storage. When most documents were created with two digit years and not four digit which was needed. Many people were afraid that the computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000. If this happened nearly every digital piece of equipment would have to be reset.

Sep 11, 2001

9/11

The September 11 attacks were a series of suicide attacks that were committed in the United States on September 11, 2001. 19 terrorist from the al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally steered two planes in to the twin towers and one into the pentagon. There was also another plane headed towards the White House but I was wrecked into a field. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Oct 2, 2002

DC Sniper

Also known as the Beltway Sniper Attacks was part of a massive plan that took the lives of ten people in Washington DC. A man named John Allen Muhammad hired a teenager named Lee Boyd Malvo. He ordered him to kill people out of the back of his car. At first it was believed that the car involved was a white van, but it was later discovered to be a Chevrolet Caprice. The man cut a small hole above his license plate to conceal the barrel.

Mar 20, 2003

Iraq War

The War on Iraq was a conflict that took place between 3/20/2003-12/15/2011. Violence is still going on even now. Prior to the war the US and UK claimed that Iraq had possession of weapons of mass destruction. The invasion led to the capturing of their leader Sadam Hussein. He was tried in court and led to execution. The start of the war was marked by the 9/11 attacks and the end was the execution.

Apr 16, 2007

Virginia Tech Massacre

On April 16, 2007 on the campus of Virginia Tech there was a school shooting. The shooter, Seung –Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded approximately 20. After all of the action the senior English Major committed suicide. There were two separate attacks approximately two hours apart. The event goes down in history as the deadliest shooting by a single gunman.

Jan 15, 2009

Plane in Hudson

US airways flight 1549 was a scheduled to fly from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina. The pilot successfully ditched the plane into the Hudson six minutes after takeoff. They struck a flock of geese causing internal problems to the plane. All of the 150 passengers survived the crash. They stood on the wings waiting for help. Lots of lives were saved in the process.